Founded in 1969, its initial goals were equality of access to employment and the creation of job opportunities for Chinese Americans.

[2] CAA represented the plaintiffs in Lau v. Nichols, a 1974 United States Supreme Court case expanding access to bilingual education.

[1] From 1982 onwards, CAA was involved in the national campaign on behalf of Chinese-American hate crime victim Vincent Chin.

[4] In 2000, CAA helped organize a national coalition in support of Taiwanese-American scientist Wen Ho Lee.

[1][2] In 2014, Chinese for Affirmative Action supported the Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, an initiative would ask voters to consider eliminating California Proposition 209's ban on the use of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in recruitment, admissions, and retention programs at California's public universities and colleges.